34: A Series Of Unfortunate Conversations

This week so much happened but also.... not a lot happened? It was an interesting week to say the least. 

 

 

I'll start with my biggest news of the week. I bought a guitar. You may be wondering, "Hermana, when did you learn to play guitar?" The answer is I didn't. But I am now! I went with my friend from our branch to get one because I don't know anything about guitars let alone the spanish vocab for them. I felt it was only appropriate to name the guitar after him... so everyone say hi to Valentino! 

 

 

Then, our friend Marta (the one that came to church) called to tell us that she never wants to talk to us nor go to church with us again. It was a very sad call to receive and really put me in the dumps for the rest of the day. She didn't say why other than the fact that she already had her own church. I'll miss her.

 

 

Continuing on our bad streak of unfortunate conversations, we met Alfredo. Oh my. This hombre. We run into him outside his house while street contacting and he IMMEDIATELY springs out of his chair to tell us that it's a beautiful, perfect day and God is good. I think, "heck yeah this dude is awesome". Well it went downhill from there. He went on some crazy rant about how God is the only goodness that exists, the Devil is a woman, all women come from the Devil, nature is the only thing we can learn from, religion is stupid, Chinese people are ruining Argentina, and how Hna Easton and I look like.... ladies of the night..... He may be the most racist, sexist, and generally awful person I have met in Argentina. It's ok though, we told him God loves him and went to buy French fries to feel better after that yuckiness. 

 

 

I'll tell you one more unfortunate encounter we had this week, which was actually kind of funny. We had a meeting with some members of our branch to talk about the missionary work going on in the area. We told them about how difficult our week was and that we were struggling to find new people to teach. This is when Hermano Gonzalez tells us that if we were better missionaries we would have more success and that we needed to repent. I wish I could say he was joking. Although we aren't perfect, Hna Easton and I are working really hard and improving every day, so we thanked him for his advice and laughed about it later.

 

 

Ok but there is good news! We had some strange conversations this week, BUT lots of awesome things happened too! Like finding the best patisserie in this whole city! We ate lots of pastries this week. And the weather was amazing, there was a rainy day where I got to wear my rain boots and jump in puddles like a 5 year old. I drank lots of mate! We got an official mate lesson from our friend Aaron, and now we are masters of the yerba. I got to visit my favorite old ladies in the area! They fed us too much and told us all about the other missionaries that served here before and gave us the best grandma hugs. Maribel and Mirta have my whole heart. 

 

 

So yes, an interesting week. We now have an empty areabook (where all the progress records go), and we are working hard and praying harder to fill it! 

 

 

It wouldn't be Valentine's day if I didn't share a verse about love with y'all. This has been one of my favorites recently: 2 Nephi 26:24 

"He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation."

 

 

The Lord loves you. The creator of worlds without end loves YOU! He looks through all of eternity, sees you just the way you are, and He loves you. Wow. And the greatest demonstration of that love is the sacrifice that He made for you. It was agonizing, it was lonely, and it was the most pure act of selfless love ever known. And it was for you. Wow.

 

 

Im sending yall all my love from down south,

Hermana Thrasher

 

 

PICS

1. Companion study yeah

2. Hna Lucarelli made us the cutest cupcakes in the world

3. We found this random horse outside after a lesson

4. My favorite day this week, just because it was so rainy and we visited Isle and Mirta, 2 of the sweetest grandma's on the planet. 

5. When we hit the 2 hour mark of working in the office, we go get facturas to celebrate 

6. Set sun

7. French fries to cheer us up after an unsuccessful 3 hours of street contacting. Did you know they have fry sauce here? It's called salsa golf.

8. Valentino y yo :)